Local Lead Rescue System • damage-claim intake • customer-service guardrails
Customer Property-Damage Claim Intake Checklist for Local Service Businesses
CUSTOMER-PROPERTY-DAMAGE-CLAIM-INTAKE-READY — Use this worksheet before AI, dispatch, office staff, or technicians respond to a customer who says a visit, repair, delivery, install, cleanup, or subcontractor action caused damage.
Damage complaints are high-risk follow-up moments: a rushed text can accidentally admit fault, promise reimbursement, contradict insurance requirements, or make a customer feel ignored. This checklist gives local-service teams a safer intake card, neutral replies, owner-review prompts, and CRM labels so the business can preserve facts and respond quickly without inventing liability, coverage, pricing, or timing.
1) Damage-claim source card
- Customer / job: {customer_name}, {job_address}, {job_id}, {visit_date}, {technician_or_subcontractor}
- Claimed damage: {what_customer_says_was_damaged}, {room_or_area}, {first_reported_at}
- Business activity nearby: estimate / diagnostic / repair / install / delivery / cleanup / callback / subcontractor visit
- Evidence received: photos / video / invoice / text / phone note / technician photo / pre-existing condition record / none yet
- Immediate risk class: cosmetic / property-damage / water-electrical-safety / injury / insurance-sensitive / legal-sensitive / owner review required
- Open facts: {unknown_timeline}, {missing_photos}, {who_needs_to_review}, {insurance_or_manager_contact}
- Next owner: {manager_or_owner}, {target_response_time}, {allowed_customer_channel}
2) Customer-safe acknowledgement snippets
Fast acknowledgement: “Hi {first_name}, thank you for flagging this. We are opening a review for {job_or_visit} and want to preserve the facts before we promise a next step. Please send any photos, the location of the issue, and when you first noticed it.”
Photo request: “Could you send 2–3 clear photos from different distances, plus any close-up details? We will add them to the job record for owner/manager review.”
No fault promise: “I do not want to make assumptions by text. We are checking the job notes, photos, and team records first, then a manager will follow up with the next appropriate step.”
Safety-sensitive: “If there is active water, electrical risk, gas odor, injury, or another immediate safety concern, please stop using the affected area and call the appropriate emergency/professional help. We will escalate this internally right away.”
STOP AUTOMATION guardrails
- Stop if the claim involves injury, active leak, electrical/gas/safety risk, insurance, legal threat, chargeback, public review escalation, or a subcontractor/vendor dispute.
- Do not admit fault, deny fault, promise reimbursement, offer discounts, waive fees, blame a technician, or quote insurance/legal outcomes without owner/manager approval.
- Do not invent diagnosis, timeline, cause, prior condition, warranty coverage, insurance coverage, repair cost, repair window, or settlement terms.
- Do not ask the customer to sign anything, delete a review, stop a chargeback, or accept a credit without a human-approved process.
- Keep every customer-facing message factual, calm, source-backed, and easy to audit later.
3) AI prompt for safe damage-claim triage
Draft one short acknowledgement for a local-service customer who reported possible property damage.
Use only the facts below. Do not admit fault, deny fault, promise reimbursement, blame staff, quote insurance/legal outcomes, invent cause, or promise repair timing.
If the risk class includes injury, active safety risk, insurance-sensitive, legal-sensitive, chargeback, public-review escalation, or unclear cause, return "NEEDS OWNER REVIEW" and list the missing fields instead of writing a customer message.
Facts:
- Customer / job: {customer_name}, {job_id}, {job_address}
- Visit/activity: {visit_activity}
- Claimed damage: {claimed_damage}
- Evidence received: {evidence_received}
- Risk class: {risk_class}
- Allowed channel: {allowed_channel}
- Human owner: {owner_name}
- Next approved step: {approved_next_step}
4) CRM labels and follow-up states
damage_claim_intake_openphotos_requested_customer_damage_claimmanager_review_required_damage_claiminsurance_sensitive_do_not_autorespondtechnician_notes_neededsubcontractor_vendor_review_neededcustomer_update_due_damage_claim
Use it with Horizon Flow
This checklist is a free resource from Horizon Flow. For a fuller local-service follow-up system, see Local Lead Rescue System or start with the free missed-lead recovery checklist.